California governor Gavin Newsom is once again dismissing speculation that he plans to run for president in 2024, saying it is time to move past the idea that President Biden will not run.
Newsom’s latest comments came during an interview with Chuck Todd that is set to air on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. Todd asked the governor, “Filing deadlines haven’t passed. [If] President Biden doesn’t run, why shouldn’t we consider you a likely candidate?”
“Well, I think the vice president is naturally the one lined up, and the filing deadlines are quickly coming to pass and I think we need to move past this notion that he’s not going to run,” Newsom said. “President Biden is going to run, and we’re looking forward to getting him reelected.”
Todd asked Newsom how he responds to private calls about 2024, to which Newsom replied: “Time to move on. Let’s go.”
President Biden became the oldest president to take the oath of office when he was sworn in in January 2021. He would be 86 at the end of a hypothetical second term, leaving many Democrats questioning whether he should be running for a second term and whether he would be able to serve a full term.
Seventy-seven percent of Americans say President Biden would be too old to be effective if he were reelected in 2024, according to a recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs poll.
Sixty-nine percent of Democrats said Biden is too old to be effective for another four years. Eighty-nine percent of Republicans said the same.
Newsom told Todd that if Biden decides not to run, vice president Kamala Harris would be the obvious choice to lead the party.
“It’s the Biden-Harris administration. Maybe I’m a little old-fashioned . . . about presidents and vice presidents,” Newsom said.
Asked whether he could ever see running against Harris, Newsom said: “Of course not. By definition. Won’t happen.”
Harris, for her part, told CBS’s Face the Nation in an interview set to air Sunday that while she is prepared to be president, if necessary, Biden is “going to be fine.”
Newsom also addressed reports that some Biden-Harris advisers were upset by his plans to debate Florida governor Ron DeSantis. The governors have agreed to a 90-minute debate aired live on Fox News and moderated by Sean Hannity, though a date has not been set for the match-up.
He said he was familiar with the reports but had not directly heard any dissent from the White House.
“I wish I knew who that was,” he said. “But I don’t hear it from her . . . and I’m certainly not hearing it from the White House itself.”